ARABINFOCUS

Iranian weapons were used in the attack on Saudi oil facilities  The Saudi Arabian Council of Ministers reaffirmed the position expressed by the Kingdom that Iranian weapons were used in the recent attack on oil facilities of the state-owned Saudi Aramco, the world's largest oil company.  King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, Custodian of the Two Sacred Mosques, chaired the last meeting of the Government team, held in Jeddah and at which the international community was urged to curb the escalation of tension caused by Iran in The Middle East region. The Saudi Executive said that the international community itself has the greatest responsibility in "limiting Iran's hostile behavior and policies."  The ministerial team of the Saudi kingdom itself explained that the attack on oil facilities is "a threat to regional and international peace and security" and an "unjustified offensive against global energy supplies."

CHIRAC, A FRIEND OF THE ARABS The former French president, Jacques Chirac, died today in Paris at the age of 86, leaving behind a long history of foreign policy, which was characterized by his support for the internationally recognized right of the Arab peoples, primarily the Palestinian. Under his presidency, France opposed the United States military intervention in Iraq, voting against it in the United Nations Security Council. In October 1996, during a visit to the old part of Al Qods, Chirac protested to Israeli security services that prevented him from moving freely on the street. “What do you want? Me to go back to my plane and go back to France? Is that what you want? Let them go, let them do. " On several occasions, Chirac criticized Israel's Zionist policy, condemning it for acts of violence against the population of the occupied Palestinian territories.

T unisia’s Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali  died in exile in Saudi Arabia Tunisia’s Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali, whose overthrow in a 2011 uprising triggered the “Arab Spring” revolutions, died in exile in Saudi Arabia on Thursday.  His funeral will take place on Friday in Saudi Arabia.  “Ben Ali fled Tunisia in January 2011 as his compatriots - many of them angered after a vegetable seller set himself on fire a few weeks earlier in protest at the police - rose up against his oppressive rule in a revolution that inspired other uprisings in the Middle East and led to a democratic transition at home. However, while Tunisians have enjoyed a much smoother march to democracy than citizens of the other Arab states that also rose up in 2011, many of them are economically worse off than they were under Ben Ali. A former security chief, Ben Ali had run Tunisia for 23 years, taking power when, as prime minister in 1987, he declared president-for-life Habib Bourguiba medic...

                         The attacks would be a major focus of next week’s annual U.N. G.A. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has described the weekend strike that initially halved Saudi oil output as an act of war and has been discussing possible retaliation with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf allies. “The Saudis were the nation that were attacked. It was on their soil. It was an act of war against them directly,” he told reporters before meeting Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Riyadh, which described the assault as a “test of global will”, on Wednesday displayed the remnants of 25 Iranian drones and missiles it said were used in the strike as undeniable evidence of Iranian aggression.   The United Arab Emirates on Thursday followed its main ally in announcing it was joining a global maritime security coalition that Washington has been trying to build since a series of explosions on oil tanker...

TWO SAUDI OIL PLANTS ATTACKED: A TERRORIST AGRESSION, SAID CROWN PRINCE Yemen Houthi group said it attacked two plants at the heart of Saudi Arabia’s oil industry on Saturday, knocking out more than half the Kingdom’s output, in a move expected to send oil prices soaring and increase tensions in the Middle East. The attacks will cut the kingdom’s output by 5.7 million barrels per day (bpd), according to a statement from state-run oil company Saudi Aramco, or more than 5% of global oil supply. The pre-dawn strikes follow earlier cross-border attacks on Saudi oil installations and on oil tankers in Gulf waters, but these were the most brazen yet, temporarily crippling much of the nation’s production capacity. Saudi Arabia is the world’s biggest exporter, shipping more than 7 million barrels of oil to global destinations every day, and for years has served as the supplier of last resort to markets. While the Houthis claimed responsibility for the attack, U.S. Se...

                   NETANYAHU DANGEROUS ESCALATION worried reactions followed on Wednesday in Arab capitals, following the promise by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to partially annex the occupied West Bank in the event of re-election. Netanyahu promised, if he was re-elected, to annex to the State of Israel "the Jordan Valley and the northern part of the Dead Sea". The Jordan Valley accounts for about 30% of the West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967. "This announcement is a dangerous development and a new Israeli aggression that declares its intention to violate international law," responded the heads of diplomacy of member states of the Arab League. In their statement, they also assured that the proposed annexation "would undermine the chances of progress in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process." The ministers also reiterated the Arab position of support for "the legitimate and in...

Kornet anti-tank missile Hezbollah hit Israeli military vehicles in the Galilee region Hezbollah hit Israeli military vehicles in the Galilee region with anti-tank missiles yesterday, prompting retaliatory airstrikes and artillery fire on Lebanese villages on the Israeli border, in what is the most serious clash between the old enemies for four years. Saad Hariri, the prime minister of Lebanon, appealed to the US and France to intervene to prevent the exchange escalating into open war. The region has been braced for further violence after Israel struck a series of Hezbollah targets last weekend, killing two militants near Damascus who they said were about to launch a drone attack over the border, with the assistance of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Hezbollah claimed to have hit an Israeli military base and ambulance, killing its occupants in yesterday’s attack. Israel released a statement saying that a vehicle and a military installation had...